ON SAINT DAMIAN, ROMAN MARTYR, AT SALAMANCA IN SPAIN.
CommentaryDamian, Roman Martyr, at Salamanca in Spain (Saint)
I. B.
[1] There exists on the Appian Way the ancient and noble cemetery called the Cemetery of Callistus, which was restored by Pope Saint Callistus, who held the see in the third century after the Incarnation of Christ; From the cemetery of Saint Callistus and was originally constructed (as is believed) by Saint Lucina, a disciple of the Apostles. From it, in our own time, the bodies of very many ancient Martyrs have been exhumed and donated to various churches, even outside Italy.
[2] The body of Saint Damian was exhumed. Among these was the body of Saint Damian the Martyr, which, extracted from the said cemetery by the authority of Urban VIII, Supreme Pontiff, was on January 9, 1640, donated by John Baptist de Alteriis, Bishop of Camerino and acting Vicar of the Most Eminent City of Rome, to the Reverend Father Brother John of the Annunciation, Procurator General in the Roman Curia of the Discalced Brethren of the Most Holy Order of the Trinity for the Redemption of Captives, together with other relics of Saints; with permission granted to transmit or transport them from the City, to donate them to others, and to display them in churches so that they might be devoutly venerated by the faithful. Tamayo Salazar recites in the Spanish Martyrology the public documents of the donation.
[3] That body of Saint Damian was sent by the same Procurator General to Spain, And sent to Salamanca. and deposited in the Salamancan college of the Brethren of the same Order, as the same Tamayo attests. He judges him to be the same Damian the soldier whom we previously listed as crowned with martyrdom in Africa. The remains of many saints were indeed formerly carried to Rome; But not of Damian, the African soldier. but that this happened to Damian cannot be solidly enough proved from the similarity of the name, without any testimony of any writer. We therefore determine them to be different, until something certain to the contrary is established from another source.